Changing the world in the Network Age

Wow, 2011, what a year!

But already it feels like 2012 is going to be MASSIVE!!!

Who would have thought how quick and how far things would move, it seems we already live in a totally different world from the one that was, this time 12 months ago, before everything started to get turned on its head. As a fella said:

“Did you ever wish you lived in one of those major moments in World history, well guess what, you are in one of those moments”

From the tragic and hopeless act of suicide in Tunisia, when Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight, a spark flew. From Tunisia to Tahrir Square and all of North Africa we saw the dawn of the Arab Spring, from there across the 8 miles that splits Africa from Spain and we saw the 15M movement or the #SpanishRevolution kick off. There was huge hope that the DEMOCRACIA REAL YA movement would spark all over Europe, it didnt. But then things took the most unexpected jump, right into the the belly of the beast into the heart of the corrupt destructive unfair system that is destroying our world; all the bankers and cronies in Wall Street. From there the #OCCUPY movement was born, and with things more so in the English languge, an idea has spread like wildfire all around the squares and communities of many different peoples all over this precious little planet. The Network Age is truly kicking off. We are a connected global community, same dreams, same pains. For so long there was little or no hope. Some, the ecologists and activists that were earlier labeled the “anti-globalisation” movement, had told us all that the entire system was about to fail, due to infinite growth on a finite planet being impossible and that leading to PEAK EVERYTHING… No one listened. But then from 2008 and the start of the “economic crisis“ (pity in english we only see the negative side of that important word; crisis) things began to change. Oil prices going up (again the transitionistas had been telling us all about this) which sparked food prices going up and unemployment spreading everywhere, here in Spain the unemployment rate is up to 23%. Difficult times, strange times, but great times to witness. Where can it all go, what do people want, how are trying to bring about that change?

In the following, you get a few ideas from the city of Barcelona, and beyond…

And to where? Bold adventures from Spain:

Some transitionistas from Barcelona headed over to Liverpool in July for the Transition Network Conference, where they shared some stories of what has been unfolding on the streets, squares and communities of Barcelona over the previous 2 months…

15M what’s happening in Spain?

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Democracy 2.0 Barcelona

On the last night of the conference, they shared videos and offered their personal opinions and that led to a fine discussion with many of the people most involved in the world of transition. The discussion was recorded, here is a very critical audio piece, from that memorable and important night.

along with this we have developed amazing communication systems that allow people to be anywhere in the world while being able to communicate with someone else anywhere in the world; phones, internet, webcast, chatrooms…..

so we have the stuff, but where are we talking and what are we talking about?

lovers of life and ideas traveled from everywhere to come to the ancient greek agora in athens, to be part of the dynamic and progressive open system that was the COMMUNICATION SPACE of yesteryear

we are aware that we are going through the next major shift in world history, we are part of the NETWORK AGE. the new agora is an attempt to further explore these ideas.

WOW… this is a truly truly important moment we are going through… It really feels like WE ARE WINNING, communication is playing a massive role in this, the spreading of ideas, face to face, in the streets, in the occupied squares, in workshops, on the net, on radio, on live streams, on tweets, on FB pages, emails… Only a few minutes ago I opened a mail from an eco activist list, with a post to a link, which had summary of COOL SHIT, number 2 on that list after the adbusters call to #OCCUPYWALLSTREET was link to GLOBALREVOLUTION.TV, which im watching the live stream from presently. Now an ANONYMOUS masked up activist is talking about the Global Day of revolution which will be happening in 13 days… next saturday; OCTOBER 15, maybe this will be the day they talk about in years to come, that simple, beautiful, peaceful day when it all changed.

For me, being 1 of the many many indignados of my town, Barcelona, in the occupied square Placa Catalunya, with many thousands more, sitting there and watching the screen, watching live as we all waved and roared hello or hola to our sisters and brothers in the occupied Syntagma square outside the Parliament in Athens, Greece, and them roaring and waving back… That will be a memory i will always cherish, its simple, we could have been doing it for years, but we havent, BUT, now we are using it… from P2P to S2S, from Peer to Peer (Initial streaming experiments, person to person, or device to device) to Square to Square… These are our WMD’s… We all know the lies sprung to rape and rob Iraq, but come and get us now “We have WMD’s… Weapons of Mass D.I.F.F.U.S.I.O.N….

WE ARE WINNING…

GLOBALREVOLUTION.TV

Global Revolution brings you live stream video coverage from independent journalists on the ground at nonviolent protests around the world. The team includes members of Mobile Broadcast News, Glassbead Collective, Twin Cities Indymedia and the alt.media ninjas that brought you Terrorizing Dissent and Democracy 101 documentaries. Currently broadcasting from #OccupyWallStreet protests in NYC that began on Saturday, Sept 17, 2011.

Occupy Wall Street is in the middle of one of its day-long marches in New York Tuesday, protesting the National Defense Authorization Act, but for those following along on the Global Revolution livestream, the real action is happening in the broadcast studio itself. That’s because police have apparently just raided the Brooklyn studio of Globalrevolution.tv and taken some of the project’s key volunteers into custody.

Manuel Castells’ three volume, The Information Age, attempts an encompassing theory of the network society and the “informational guerrilla movements” who resist it. The above essay was translated by Hugh Green and originally appeared in La Vanguardia.

[…] and cronyism and for a better world. We here in Spain were influenced by the uprisings of the Arab Spring and the gentle reclaiming done and still being done on the island of Iceland. Since last year a lot […]